Monthly Archives: April 2018

2018 Opening Season Clean-Ups and Special Events Schedule

Opening Season Garden CleanUps and Resource Drive

  • Clean-Up Cuse and Resource Drive on Saturday April 21
    Rahma Food Forest Garden from 10am to 3pm
    3100 South Salina St
    In addition to trash pick-up at the food forest and surrounding streets, we will be propagating hardwood cuttings of currants and gooseberry by plugging them directly into the ground in areas that we have targeted for restoration work.  We will also be digging and separating root/bulb perennials to have on stock for our upcoming plant swap and sale (see below).  Finally, we’ll be receiving compost and mulch deliveries from Syracuse Grows that we’ll need volunteers to unload and haul around the site.

    Clean-Up Cuse and Resource Drive on Saturday April 21
    610 Gifford St Community Garden from 11am to 1pm
    Trash pick up at the garden and on surrounding blocks as part of a neighborhood wide effort coordinated by Take Back The Streets.  We’ll feast on rice and beans too provided by our volunteers.  We’ll also start seeding cold weather crops as the ground is supposed to be thawed, and propagating cuttings and other perennials as possible.  Finally, we’ll also be receiving compost and mulch deliveries from Syracuse Grows that we’ll need volunteers to unload and haul around the site.

Special Events

  • EarthFest at Thornden on Sunday April 22
    Thornden Park from 12noon to 4pm
    Come paint garden art signs with us!  Participate in a  community painting event by sharing your style in painting a garden art sign that depicts one of the species in our gardens.  We then use the signs for education in the gardens, and fundraising.  There is no cost for folks to paint!

 

  • Revolution’s Regard Art Show on Sat April 28 from 4pm to 12midnight
    The Gear Factory (Corner of South Geddes and West Fayette)
    Come paint garden art signs with us again!  Participate in a  community painting event by sharing your style in painting a garden art sign that depicts one of the species in our gardens.  We then use the signs for education in the gardens, and fundraising.  There is no cost for folks to paint!

 

  • Plant Swap & Sale on Sat May 5 from 11:30am to 2 pm
    405 Westcott St at Bread and Roses Collective
    Plant lineup will be on Facebook event pages of both organization soon (or contact us if you don’t use FB). This year, Worker’s Center of CNY will be serving Zapatista coffee & selling Handmade crafts, and Brad from Salt City Syrup will be selling his Syrup and Maple Cotton Candy!

Revisiting Rahma – restocking of Rahma Edible Food Forest after 5 years of tree growth

A fundraiser for $500 dollars

In 2012 we started the journey together through design, fundraising and organizing, to build a forest garden on the grounds of the Rahma Free Clinic.  In 2018, after 5 years of growing a forest, we will revisit and renew, taking an intentional look at what succeeded and what failed, redesigning plots and polycultures, and replanting and newly mulching spaces that haven’t yet fulfilled their potential at the Rahma Edible Forest Snack Garden in Syracuse NY, located at 3100 South Salina St.

For example, one of our first plots – the paw-paw/currant/gooseberry/mint polyculture – has been very stable, though we lost one pawpaw tree following a dry period during the summer of 2016.   Most of the groundcover and herbaceous layer is productive, but some spots have seen takeover by plant species that we would rather convert to other productive residents.  Thistle and wild lettuce will be replaced with  friendlier clover, gaps between under-story specimens will be re-mulched and filled in with cuttings from the adjacent gooseberry and currants, and the pawpaw loss will be replanted with two new 4-foot tall saplings (approximate cost with shipping $100.00).

Second, the center of out garden has often suffered from dry periods, and the trees planted there have either been mortality specimens or have grown very very slowly.  We will replant with a monarch waystation patch of 32 plants including 6 different species* ($136.85), as well as a triumvirate of Adirondack Gold Apricot trees ($104.24)!

The remaining funds from the $500 raised will go towards supplies and materials such as plant stakes, ID tags, snacks for volunteers, and clover seed.  If we raise more than the $500, we’ll be able to extend our revisit to other patches in the forest too!  Come take a look and share what areas you’d like to see receive some extra special TLC this year.

* (5) Butterflyweed for Clay (3″ Pots), (5) Rough Blazingstar (3″ Pots), (5) Common Milkweed (3″ Pots), (5) Sky Blue Aster (3″ Pots), (6) Hoary Vervain (3″ Pots), (6) Purple Coneflower (3″ Pots)

Picture above is from our annual Juneberry harvest!  The perks we are providing to donors of this campaign are not metered out in buttons, or keychains, or postcards, or any other trinkets, but in real food, and planting stock, and seeds, that we give away and share with anyone that visits the edible food forest, from the plants that we grow on site!